Why We Use Butter For Our Pastry Instead of Margarine - Carême Pastry (2024)

FAQs

Why We Use Butter For Our Pastry Instead of Margarine - Carême Pastry? ›

You may have wondered why we use butter rather than margarine at Carême Pastry as the preferred fat for our premium 'French' style puff pastry and shortcrust pastry. Well, it's because butter produces superior quality pastry with a lovely flaky

But when you're baking, butter triumphs over margarine every time. For cakes, cookies, and pastries, butter (unsalted, that is) provides richer flavor. (It begins as cream, after all, and margarine is made from vegetable oil.) Butter's high fat content is also what gives baked goods their texture.

In pastry making, butter plays a fundamental role because it makes the pastry ""waterproof"". At the same time, it adds crustiness and crumble to shortcrust and all dry pastries (small cakes for eating on the move, for example) and brings softness and creaminess to risen doughs.

Margarine often has a lower saturated fat content and higher water content than butter does causing it to be much softer when cold. Because of it softer property, margarine can cause cakes to be less tender and cookies will generally spread out more and be less crisp when compared to the same recipe using butter.

In baking, melted margarine could work in recipes that call for melted butter, but in recipes that call for softened butter, swapping in tub margarine may change the texture; for example, cakes will be less tender, and cookies will generally spread out more and be less crisp.

Impact of Butter and Margarine Consumption

Since margarine has a variable but high trans fat level, the consumption of margarine may lead to an increased incidence of heart disease, cancer, and other diseases when compared with butter. Hence, butter is considered healthier than margarines.

Butter is the favoured fat to use in cakes and bakes and we use unsalted butter for all of our cakes in the bakeries. It is made from churned cream, a process that separates the butterfat from the buttermilk.

Undoubtedly butter produces the most deliciously flavoured puff pastry and is recommended where first quality goods are demanded. Care must be taken in its handling, however. The paste must be gently rolled and preferably refrigerated between turns. Plenty of rest must be given and softer dough made.

This helps create more consistent results for home bakers replicating a recipe. In general, salted butter is preferred for cooking (or simply spreading) as it adds more flavour and has a longer shelf life, while unsalted butter is the go-to for baking.

For many recipes, margarine and butter can be used interchangeably or combined. When substituting margarine for all or part of the butter in baking, make sure the margarine contains at least 80 percent oil and don't use light or whipped margarine. If you're making puff pastry or pie crusts, ...

Can you use margarine instead of butter in pie crust? ›

I picked this recipe because I was out of shortening and all I had was margarine. This turned out great! I think butter would make it flakier, but it was still wonderful with the margarine. I doubled the recipe and got three crusts.

Yes, you can use margarine or any vegan butter you would like and the process will still work for croissants.

Undoubtedly butter produces the most deliciously flavoured puff pastry and is recommended where first quality goods are demanded. Care must be taken in its handling, however. The paste must be gently rolled and preferably refrigerated between turns. Plenty of rest must be given and softer dough made.

Margarine often tops butter when it comes to heart health. Margarine is a blend of oils that are mostly unsaturated fat. Butter is made from cream or milk. The type of fat found in animal products, such as cream, is mostly saturated fat.

However, if you're after a delicious and extra flaky crust, butter is the ingredient to use. Only butter contains water (shortening does not) which turns into steam in the oven and consequently into delicate flaky layers.